Coinciding with a year of celebrations marking 100 years since the birth of the world’s number one storyteller, the estate has developed a more focused, contemporary and creative licensing programme.

There will be a core focus on three of the most popular stories – CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, MATILDA and THE BFG. New style guides have been developed for each of these three hero titles with the iconic imagery of Sir Quentin Blake at their heart. New colour palettes, placements, icons and other assets have been added to invigorate the licensing programme like never before.

Stephanie Griggs recently joined The Roald Dahl Literary Estate team as its first in-house Licensing Manager. Stephanie says: “The new look will be key to achieving standout and consistency on licensed products for the three hero titles. Building three programmes under the Roald Dahl umbrella will help licensees and retailers have a clearer sense of our licensing vision and deliver a bolder, more streamlined brand experience to consumers.”

Alicia Davenport of DRi adds: “With our ever-growing list of committed licensing partners, we are using these new style guides to further unlock the huge potential of the Roald Dahl brand. We’re developing some very exciting new product ranges and cross-category offerings for 2016 and beyond.”

The brand has itself been reworked creatively over the last year and this new author branding has recently featured in high-profile consumer promotions with Persil and McDonalds.

The centenary, called “Roald Dahl 100” will deliver a year packed with treats and surprises for everyone, including a BBC season of programming, the release of Steven Spielberg’s big screen adaptation of The BFG, and re-jacketing of the full library of Roald Dahl’s children’s titles.

Roald Dahl 100 is a year filled with gloriumptious treats for everyone!

A new interactive experience, THE WONDERCRUMP WORLD OF ROALD DAHL, featuring exclusive archival material from the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, will take visitors on a magical journey through seven immersive worlds that explore Roald Dahl’s life, characters and stories. The exhibition will run at London’s Southbank Centre from February to July, before transferring to Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, city of Roald Dahl’s birth, in August. Also at Southbank Centre, Roald Dahl is a key theme of the Imagine Children’s Festival running for two weeks in February.

A Roald Dahl story, THE GREAT MOUSE PLOT, is one of the World Book Day titles in March. In May, the Hay Festival of Literature will celebrate Roald Dahl 100 with a range of special programming.

June sees publication of THE OXFORD ROALD DAHL DICTIONARY (Oxford University Press) – a fully-functioning dictionary for children aged 8+ which celebrates the way Roald Dahl both used language and created his own “gobblefunk” additions to it. The dictionary features full-colour illustrations by Sir Quentin Blake.

The BBC will celebrate Roald Dahl’s creativity across its services during the summer. Throughout 2016, the BBC will be running “GET READING” – a campaign celebrating great authors and their works, with the aim to get the nation reading and sharing the books they love. The highlight of its children’s books season in Summer 2016 will be a major BBC Two documentary, ROALD DAHL: IN HIS OWN WORDS, celebrating the life and work of Roald Dahl. There will also be stand-out coverage on BLUE PETER, THE ONE SHOW and across the BBC’s TV and radio networks.

July brings the global release of the big screen adaptation of Roald Dahl’s THE BFG, directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie stars Mark Rylance as The BFG himself and newcomer Ruby Barnhill as young orphan Sophie. The Roald Dahl Literary Estate is working closely with eOne – who are spearheading the licensing and marketing for the movie – on opportunities to ensure everyone realises the potential from this summer’s biggest blockbuster.

On 13th September, Roald Dahl’s birthday will be marked with the biggest celebrations for the author ever seen, with parties in schools, libraries, bookshops and community settings not only in the UK but worldwide. The following weekend, September 17th/18th, will see Cardiff transformed into “The City of the Unexpected”.

The Roald Dahl 100 year culminates with a brand new Christmas TV highlight – the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s REVOLTING RHYMES by master animation studio, Magic Light (THE GRUFFALO/ROOM ON THE BROOM).

Plus the two hit West End stage shows, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and MATILDA, continue to entertain to packed houses, with the latter celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2016.